Nutritional Habits And Body Composition Assessment In International Soccer Referees

PURPOSE: Soccer referee has responsibility to verify and enforce the rules of the game and control players' behavior during matches. In order to be able to directing a football game, to have a good decision-making ability and to be close to the action the referee must be in optimal physical condition. Physical demands and nutrition are highly interrelated: the study of body composition is a method for assessing the balance between these two aspects closely related to sport performance. The aim of the present study was to evaluate nutritional habits and resulting body composition in international soccer referees called for the FIFA World Cup 2018. METHODS: 60 soccer referees (SR) (39.2 ± 4.2 years) were enroll in this study. The variables of body mass, height, skinfold thicknesses, body circumferences (waist, hip and biceps) were collected with the purpose of estimating Sum of 7 skinfold thicknesses (∑7sk), Fat Mass (FM %), Fat Mass, Fat Mass index (FMI kg/m2). The skinfold thickness are been evaluated with International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry methodology. For the evaluation of nutritional habits (NH), athletes answered a 24 h food recall. The variables of carbohydrates (CHO), protein (PRO) and fat (FAT) are expressed in % and g/kg. Micronutrients in terms of vitamins and minerals are been collected. The data are been compared with the international guidelines. RESULTS: The data collected regarding the body composition describe a normal weight population (BMI = 23.3 ± 1.5 kg/m2), but with a FM% of 11.4 ± 2.5 and a FMI of 4.9 ± 1.3 kg/m2 above the normal range. The ∑7sk was 63.7 ± 17.3 mm. About NH we observed: -CHO 44.6 %, 3.1 g/kg; -PRO 16.5 %, 1.1 g/kg; -FAT 41.4 %, 1.3 g/kg; The minerals below the normal range was Calcium (661.8 ± 187.3 mg/die), Zinc (10.3 ± 2.5 mg/die), Magnesium (295.6± 81.8 mg/die) Iodine (21.2± 9.3 µg/die). The vitamins below the normal range was Folic Acid (381.0 ± 118.4 µg/die) and Vitamin A (1282.4 ± 484.1 UI/die). CONCLUSIONS: NH are inadequate for this category, CHO and PRO are below and the FAT above the international guidelines. These data suggested that nutritional intervention would be appropriate. Therefore, the nutritional habits must be adapted to their daily physical activities, during match refereeing, to obtain better performance.